


Glass Houses

by Carmenlire



Series: Who Is in Control [4]
Category: Shadowhunters (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Mob, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Break Up Talk, Crimes & Criminals, Established Relationship, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Organized Crime
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-30
Updated: 2019-05-30
Packaged: 2020-03-30 01:57:58
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,032
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19032406
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Carmenlire/pseuds/Carmenlire
Summary: Back turned to Magnus, Alec reaches for the decanter as he speaks. “You sabotaged negotiations for my Hell’s Kitchen project.”“I did.”There’s not a flicker of guilt in Magnus’s tone and Alec rests his hands on the cart, taking a shuddering breath. He turns around and studies his boyfriend and the word slips out before he can stop it, before he can shift the tone to something clinical instead of frustrated confusion.“Why?”Or, Alec and Magnus's relationship is tested for the first time.





	Glass Houses

“Mr. Bane.”

Alec lifts his glass of whiskey and relishes the burning warmth as he takes a drink. His mouth turns up, faintly, as Magnus gives as good as he gets, stubborn until the bitter fucking end.

“Mr. Lightwood.”

The two of them stare at each other in the silence of Magnus’s office. Alec had stormed in almost twenty minutes ago. He’d seen Santiago reach for his gun but Magnus had merely stood calmly from his desk and waved his second-in-command off.

Santiago had acquiesced, though Alec had watched the sneer of his lips as he gave him a once over, wary yet resigned.

The door had shut behind him and now it was just the two of them. Alec and Magnus. Magnus had walked over to his drink cart and poured two glasses of whiskey, handing one over to Alec without a word.

Twenty minutes have gone by without either of them breaking the spell that seems to have been cast over the room. Alec doesn’t know where to start and Magnus certainly isn’t jumping in.

Alec doesn’t know what to think of it.

He doesn’t know what to think of any of this.

Taking another sip, his mind reels at the past twenty four hours.

It burns with betrayal and deceit and stupid, irresponsible love. It’s a nauseating mix and Alec hates himself, just a little, for the hope that laces through it all and no doubt makes him a goddamn fool.

He watches Magnus. If he didn’t know better, Alec would say Magnus was unnerved, no matter how much he’s trying to hide it.

His lip gloss is chewed off on the right side of his mouth like it only is when he’s unsure of his words. His fingers twitch every few seconds like he wants to reach out and the polish on his left thumb has been scratched off.

Alec knows Magnus better than he knows almost anyone else. He _knows_ Magnus’s tells but right now, in this moment, he doesn’t have a fucking clue what it all means.

He doesn’t expect to be the first person to speak. There’s rage that’s filling his head and doubt and a dozen other emotions that are as fragile as they are dark.

He wants to break something. Someone.

He’ll know by the end of the afternoon whether that someone will be the man in front of him, the man he’s given his heart and his trust to.

Throwing back the rest of his drink, Alec takes a last moment to brace himself for whatever fallout might be waiting for him before he stands up and goes to the drink cart for a refill.

Back turned to Magnus, Alec reaches for the decanter as he speaks. “You sabotaged negotiations for my Hell’s Kitchen project.”

It’s not a question. Alec had made sure to get a name from the backstabbing little coward before he’d killed him in an alley off 44th Street after he and Jace had taken care of all of his men.

“I did.”

There’s not a flicker of guilt in Magnus’s tone and Alec rests his hands on the cart, taking a shuddering breath. He turns around and studies his boyfriend and the word slips out before he can stop it, before he can shift the tone to something clinical instead of frustrated confusion.

_“Why?”_

Magnus shrugs, a negligent finger circling the rim of his glass like he hasn’t a care in the world. “What do you want to hear? Because I wanted the partnership for myself? Because if you made this deal, your influence would stretch far beyond mine? Take your pick, sweetheart. Any answer will do as long as you’re no longer working with him.”

Anger fills Alec and before he quite knows what’s happened, he’s striding across the room and slamming his hands on Magnus’s desk hard enough to rattle every goddamn object on its surface.

Magnus doesn't flinch, just stares up at him without a flicker of response.

He reaches up and grabs Magnus’s chin, tilting it up just a hair too hard until his gaze can sear into Magnus’s.

Leaning close, his voice is a hard, menacing murmur as he replies, “No, _sweetheart_ , I want the truth. I don’t want those pretty little lies that fall from your honeyed tongue like so much bullshit. I’m not just anyone. I’m your fucking boyfriend, Magnus. I’m Alec Lightwood, head of the goddamn Lightwood Legacy, and I want to know why the hell you did this to me. You know how important that deal was and you still ruined it.”

He jerks Magnus the tiniest bit closer and his grip is bruising, punishing. Alec’s been betrayed by people he considered family but nothing has the potential to hurt quite so much as this.

Magnus doesn’t answer for a moment. He’s still in Alec’s hold, seemingly content, though he watches his eyes flare in stunned annoyance before it’s banked and his expression goes back to being perfectly impassive.

“Well, head of the goddamn Lightwood Legacy, maybe you should use that brain of yours and put the pieces together.”

Without warning, Magnus tears his head away and out of Alec’s grip. He stands and drinks the rest of his whiskey in a long swallow before bringing the glass back down with a sharp thud that sounds like a gunshot in the room.

He buttons his suit jacket and walks around his desk, coming to stand just a few feet from Alec. His gaze is mocking, the light that’s always been warm when turned on Alec turning icily callous.

Magnus takes a step closer and runs a finger along Alec’s jaw, trailing a path down his throat to play with the necklace whose chain is barely visible underneath the collar of his shirt.

“We had a good time, didn’t we, Alexander?” Magnus’s voice is distracted as his eyes follow the path of his hand. “We kept away from the prying eyes of our men and I showed you just how much fun letting loose could be. And you, my darling,” Magnus breathes, slipping a hand just under Alec’s shirt to catch the small pendant that’s rested against his heart for almost a year.

“You showed me that fire can burn in the most unexpected places. Yes, we had a good time,” Magnus repeats, “But you didn’t really think this could last, did you? I have my business to think of and even if I did care for you, nothing will ever matter as much to me as that. It’s who I am, darling. You really should’ve known better.”

Alec blinks slowly and tries to ignore the way his heart is cracking, the way it’s dissolving into a bloodied pulp. He almost thinks that if he stared hard enough, he’d see red stain Magnus’s hands.

“You don’t mean that,” he says hoarsely. “You’ve done too much for me. This wasn’t just some-- what? Convenient fuck? Amusing joke at the expense of your men? A break from goddamn _ennui?”_

Alec watches Magnus carefully as he says the words and knows-- Christ, _he knows_ \-- that Magnus is lying. He sees the shudder that works tense shoulders and the ripple of a hard swallow before Magnus is turning away and strolling over to his window. 

The sunlight bathes him in gold and he looks like an angel. Alec can almost, _almost_ see the drip of wings falling behind him.

He looks like everything Alec’s ever wanted and even as the thought makes his chest ache, he’s striding after him and Magnus doesn’t jolt when Alec takes his shoulder and spins him around, when he pushes him against the wall and crowds into his space until they're breathing the same air.

“Tell me the truth, baby,” Alec whispers in the space between their lips. He hears the quick intake of breath and sees the way Magnus’s pupils blow wide before he closes them, shaking his head a little. “Why’d you do it?”

He reaches for the necklace hanging from Magnus’s neck, a match to his own, as he noses along his boyfriend’s cheek. The pad of his thumb strokes along Magnus’s chest and he feels his pulse, a rapid staccato.

“Tell me,” he says again, this time a little more insistent, a little more firm. He closes his own eyes and breathes in the scent of Magnus’s cologne, a smell that’s he’s as intimately familiar with as his own.

He’s taken by surprise when Magnus straightens and pushes him away. He doesn’t pull his punches and Alec stumbles back a few steps. When he opens his eyes, Magnus is glaring at him.

“You don’t get to do this, Alec,” he accuses. “You don’t get to come in here with your fucking doe eyes and voice that could break me without even trying and beg for answers that you’re better off not knowing. You don’t get to act like you don’t know how much you affect me, not after everything-- everything I’ve done for you, everything we’ve done for each other.”

Alec tries to make sense of the words. He can’t, though. Magnus is staring at him like he should have all the answers and Alec can’t string two thoughts together right now.

“What the hell are you talking about?”

“As if you don’t know,” Magnus scoffs. “You stupid, stubborn man. I love you, Alexander. I am in love with you and that deal in Hell’s Kitchen that you’re so worried about? Yeah, I sent one of my men over to Sebastian and planted a whisper in his ear that you were insincere, that you were going to cheat him as soon as the deal was inked. That I was a better bet. I’m the one who sabotaged that foolish fucking plan of yours and you know what? I don’t care. I’m not sorry. I would do it again a hundred times if at the end of things, you were here, alive standing in front of me. Hell,” Magnus laughs, a touch hysterically. “Even if you never talk to me again, all that matters is that you’re alive.”

Alec absorbs the words but can’t, for the life of him, make sense of them. He ignores the abrupt declaration, can't even think of processing that right now on top of everything else, though it does make his heart soar to hear the words for the first time, words that he's been biting back for months. 

“Why,” he demands. “You know Valentine killed my dad and I am so fucking close to getting him, Magnus. You know that. Sebastian was my way to infiltrate The Circle and end all those bastards. How could you do that?”

“Because I love you,” Magnus shouts, frustrated and desperate. “I don’t care about some stupid sense of familial duty that’s making you pursue him. That sense of responsibility is going to get you killed and I refuse to sit on the sidelines when I could've stopped it. You know his reputation, Alec. You know what he’s capable of and the thought of you going into that viper’s nest makes my skin crawl.”

He rushes forward and takes Alec’s face between his hands. “Don’t you see? I would do anything for you and the thought of what could happen if Valentine got his hands on you is too much. No, my plan was the safest option,” he says decisively. “I ruined that deal and I’d do it again as long as you’re alive. Nothing matters as much to me as that, darling. Nothing.”

His voice ends fiercely and his eyes bore into Alec’s, like he can make him understand through sheer effort alone.

Alec might understand the sentiment but he can’t condone it.

“Damn you,” he rasps. “Damn you for thinking that I’m too weak to face Valentine, to avenge my family. Damn you for taking that choice from me.”

Magnus’s eyes flash. “You know that’s not it. Don’t be stupid, Alexander. This thing is bigger than you. It’s bigger than the both of us and the only way it ends is with someone in a goddamn body bag. I’m protecting you-- _us_. I’m trying to save _us_ from that maniacal bastard. Say you wouldn’t do the same for me,” Magnus challenges. 

His voice drops to just above a whisper as he continues, “I have a good idea of what you did before you came here, darling. Tell me that you haven’t figured another way out. Tell me that you haven’t used that lovely mind of yours to strategize another plan. Tell me that you don’t understand why I did what I did and make me believe it. Because otherwise? You’re making fools of us both.”

In an instant, Alec understands just what’s going on and the ace that Magnus had been hiding up his sleeve. He’s equal parts furious and impressed and that hope that had been beating against his chest springs to life and wraps around his heart until he feels like suffocating.

Snarling, Alec says, “You know you have me wrapped around your fucking finger. You know that I’d do anything for you-- for us. You don’t get to play coy and act like you don’t know how much you affect me. Not after everything we’ve been through and everything I've risked for this. I love you, Magnus. Part of me thinks I’ve loved you since that damned furniture store. I'd give you anything you asked. Except this. What? Was this some sort of goddamn test? You don't think I could do it on my own?”

Magnus's eyes widen before he's shaking Alec. "You stubborn idiot," he hisses. "So I fucked up your plan with Verlac. While that was the safest option, full stop, there is another way out of this. Together. Why won't you listen to me?"

Magnus lifts his chin and his eyes flash with challenge. “Maybe I need to know for sure. Maybe I did need to test you and see if the man who can look into my eyes and see my goddamn soul could be the same man that I could trust with my business. And more importantly, my heart.”

Alec searches his eyes and tries to deal with everything that's been heaped onto his shoulders the past day. There's a piece of him that wants to leave and let Magnus deal with the consequences of his actions. But, there's a much larger piece-- damn near every part of him-- that wants to forgive and move on, together.

“And do I pass,” Alec whispers, leaning closer. He hears the sharp intake of Magnus’s breath as he veers at the last second to brush his lips against his pulse instead of his waiting, upturned mouth.

“That depends, Alexander. Are we a team or are you committed to moving forward with another suicidal plan on your own?"

Humming a little, Alec pulls Magnus closer. He hears his breath catch before he finally gives in. "We'll get the bastard together. I won't try any harebrained scheme." He pulls back and makes sure that their eyes meet, that they understand each other, when he continues, "But we will get him. I'm not giving up on this, Magnus. I can't."

"Understood,” Magnus manages to reply. Grinning, he adds, "You pass with flying colors, darling," before he buries a hand in Alec’s hair and kisses him. 

Alec feels the heat and it’s intoxicating. It’s addicting. It’s everything that he’s always wanted and everything else can go to hell.

Breaking apart, Alec takes a desperate gasp of air before he says, “You could’ve told me, you know. You could’ve told me that last night was a test for Valentine. If you would’ve explained, I would have understood. I would’ve agreed.”

“I couldn’t take that chance. Sebastian is a little fish, a minor player. To get to Valentine, we need to hit him where he’ll never see us coming, where we hold all the cards and there’s no doubt that he’ll be the one dead at the end of things. The only way to do that was to ruin that deal and kill Verlac. Now that his favorite underling is dead, Valentine will be vulnerable and we can plan accordingly.”

Alec leans in and kisses him and it’s almost too much. He’s dizzy with relief and belated comprehension and awe at Magnus’s scheming.

He’s known since he was seventeen that he was fucked, no hope of salvation. He knows better now though, as Magnus’s heat sears into him and he can’t breathe without moaning Magnus’s name. 

Distantly, he thinks that anything is worth this-- Magnus, the two of them together against everything else.

Nothing can stand in their way and as Magnus pushes him back and he hits the wall with a dull thud, Alec stops thinking and gives himself over to this, to the feeling that’s wrapping its way around his chest and squeezing until he can’t breathe, until he doesn’t know which way is up.

Until he doesn’t care that the most important thing to him is the man in front of him.

“God, Magnus,” Alec growls. He rapidly works to undo the buttons on Magnus’s suit, shoving his jacket off his shoulders before getting to work on his damn waistcoat. “Talk to me next time,” he orders, panting. “Don’t leave me in the dark again. Not about something as important as this, not when it affects me-- both of us-- so much.”

“Of course, darling,” Magnus agrees before biting down on Alec’s neck, right over the center of the tattoo he’d gotten when he was eighteen and feeling invincible. It’s a few moments later before Magnus pulls back and Alec almost whines at the loss of contact before Magnus starts talking again.

“I’m sorry I tried to deceive you. I promise I had no ulterior motives.”

Something in Alec’s chest expands and he takes a deep breath, shaking his head a little to clear it before he takes Magnus’s chin in his hand, this time infinitesimally careful.

“Never try to break up with me again to spare me, okay? I won’t be so understanding next time.”

Magnus’s meets his eyes and nods slowly even as his expression changes to apologetic. “That is one thing I am truly sorry for, Alexander. I thought that if I pushed you away, if I made it seem like I was only looking out for my own selfish interests, that you wouldn’t look underneath the surface. I would’ve hated to lose you but as long as you were alive, I could deal with it.”

“I love you, Magnus, and I can’t live without you. Don’t be so stupid again,” he says. His eyes are teasing even if his voice is deadly serious.

“I love too, Alexander. I love you, too.”

Tilting his chin up a little, Alec kisses him slowly and savors the moment.

Last night, when he’d gone to meet Verlac and had immediately been cornered, Alec had exchanged a look with Jace.

The only thing he could think-- and he knew by Jace’s look that he was thinking the same thing-- was that there was a mole who’d tipped someone off about his meeting. Verlac had gone on and on about getting a better offer and that he was no longer interested in doing business with the Lightwoods. He’d had a dozen of his goons along with men from a small, neighboring gang with him for reinforcements and Alec and Jace had nodded to each other before launching into an attack.

It’d been bloody and hard and the fight had dragged out for almost an hour before Verlac was the only man left. He was still conscious, even with a knife sticking through his kidney, and Alec had crouched down to his side while Jace called in men to clean the mess up.

He’d leaned down and demanded to know who had betrayed him. He’d deal with the gang later-- by morning, the remains of the group would know that the Lightwoods had dispatched all of the men who had shown up tonight and they’d be pissing their pants in fear of continued retaliation.

The Lightwoods were old and respected and never backed down from a feud.

But right now, he had bigger concerns. Namely, Verlac and finding out who the highest bidder was.

When Sebastian had muttered Magnus’s name with a blood-speckled grin, Alec had twisted the knife, hearing Verlac’s pained groans with vicious satisfaction.

“I’m telling the truth,” he’d pleaded and Alec had been a hairsbreadth from snapping his neck when Jace’s voice had sounded behind him.

“What if he is telling the truth, Alec? I wouldn't put it past the bastard to wait until now to make his move against you. We know he's a sly fucker."

Closing his eyes, Alec had painstakingly counted to ten. Jace didn’t know about the two of them and he still thought of Magnus as nothing more than a rival. He didn’t know that Alec had been in a relationship with the man for just over a year, that Alec was head over heels in love with him.

Alec had barely paused before killing Sebastian but the lapse had been all the despicable man had needed.

“Send your boyfriend my regards, Lightwood,” he’d muttered just before Alec shot him.

The words had shaken him, badly. No one knew about the two of them-- no one was supposed to know. Both he and Magnus worked diligently at maintaining their discretion and the thought that this scum-- the right hand man to Valentine, no less-- knew? It filled Alec with a fury and terror like he’d never known.

They’d cleaned up the mess and Alec had sent Jace home while he reviewed everything that had happened in the past few hours.

Magnus couldn’t have betrayed him. He couldn’t have swiped his legs out from under him during this deal. The very thought was ludicrous. But as Sebastian’s taunting last words stuck in his head, Alec found himself considering it as he stopped at a neighborhood bar and nursed a drink in the corner.

Now that he has the truth, Alec can’t believe that he ever thought Magnus had really forsaken him. He’s been hunting Valentine for months, ever since he was given that first clue all those months ago. He had a plan and while it might not have been the best, Alec needed to see this retribution through.

Still, as the two of them retire to Magnus’s apartment, Alec knows his boyfriend was right. Valentine is a formidable adversary and had Magnus been contemplating the same idea, he would’ve been sorely tempted to derail it.

He knows himself well enough to know he’d do anything to keep Magnus safe, no matter the personal cost.

And, now that he’s realized that Magnus had been thinking of a different plan--albeit with or without Alec’s involvement-- he feels anticipation simmering under his skin like a live-wire.

Working with Magnus, harnessing their strengths to bring Valentine down together, is an exciting prospect. While the two have helped each other out with tips and tidbits of information, they’ve never truly pooled their resources for a job before.

Alec’s looking forward to the next weeks. 

The windows are open in Magnus’s apartment and as the fall into bed, the breeze blows the diaphanous curtains in lazy waves.

They lose themselves in each other’s bodies, in the feelings coalescing in their chests. 

They fell into this, Alec thinks distantly. He never expected Magnus. Today is the first time they’ve said those three little words but now that they’re out, Alec can’t stop from gasping them against Magnus’s neck and he shudders as he feels his boyfriend’s lips sound the words against his heart.

A long while later, sated and boneless, Alec draws the words against Magnus’s side. He’s exhausted after the tumultuous past few days and all he wants is to curl against his boyfriend and fall asleep, safe and loved.

With his last seconds of consciousness, Alec hears Magnus whisper into his hair, “Together, darling. For as long as you’ll have me.”

Sleep pulls him under before he can assure Magnus that, if that’s the case, then they have forever.

**Author's Note:**

> catch me on tumblr or twitter @carmenlire!


End file.
